THE JAMES JOYCE MEMORIAL LIQUID THEATRE

The New York Times

''New York and Los Angeles, those twin cities of the plain and fancy, have something new in common. It is called the James Joyce Memorial Liquid Theater, and last night it opened or started publicly flowing in the unlikely but happily apt precincts of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

". . .The performance has been conceived and directed by Steven Kent. Now, in the first place it is not, strictly speaking, a performance. It is a series of loosely structured events that outsiders on payment of a fee are invited to experience. If they are voyeuristically inclined, they watch and take their pleasures vicariously. I suspect it would be a dim thing to watch, and on the night I attended there were no takers for watching.

"The Liquid Theater might be summed up as an environmental experiment intended to evoke innocence, childhood and perhaps a kind of pre puberty sexuality It is a regression to that distant human area of non responsibility, either embryonic or infantile.

". . .With closed eyes you enter the maze a maze of hands, soft voices and drifting muslin . . . You move here and there, guided by blind voices and silent hands. You are embraced by abstract strangers; softly but firmly, you are delicately kissed with an asexual friendliness, that is pre erotic in its innocence. You are asked to open your eyes. A man and a woman are embracing you they ask you to enter the other section of the play area. From here you see the maze full of filmy lights and Blakelike bodies, and watch the ritual passage of later voyagers . The atmosphere is warm and amiable The air is full of motherly love and brotherly concern. ...There are no winners and no losers at the Liquid Theater. The only winners are those who play the tames... And it is all rather childish or child like, depending on how far you are going with it The last adventurers have come through the maze The guide,' performers now put on a ballet for the audience for some minutes the evening unexpectedly takes on the traditional guise of a performance. The ballet is about anthropoid apes, Adarn and Eve, the loss of innocence and the differentia tion of sexuality. It is very funny, and perfectly danced and mimed.

"Now the cast mingles for yet more games lie on the ground and be massaged and pummeled, let your body go rigid while your group passes you around, or raises you high in the air. Then run around in daisy chains and finally agglomerate, in an expectant onion shaped heap of bodies

"You suddenly cry as if you were welcoming spring, and the rock group, up in some musicians' gallery that has been discreetly coloring the proceedings, now breaks out in full force You dance or perhaps you watch the dancing But, no, you dance. And you leave not forgetting to retrieve your coat. arid your shoes. and your valuables, and your lack of innocence.

"'But tell me, Mr. Barnes, properly speaking, is this thing here, theater?' 'No baby, it's not theater it's liquid theater. And, by the way, what a great way to use the old Guggenheim at night.'"

Clive Barnes

The Image

". . . I cannot help but say that this is the most valid new expression of theatre that I have yet experienced . . . Liquid Theatre in the most non philosophical, straight, mirror image of man is stating simply, 'Thou art God.' Dig it? . . ."

Robb Hall

L.A. Free Press

'' . .The artistically bravest drama to be found anywhere in our theatrical community . . . Enough of a theatrical experience to make one regain his faith in the possibilities of theater. . .''

Harvey Perr